jayecard's reviews
168 reviews

dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is about the experience of watching every horror movie ever, but set at Ikea. It's not very scary, but there is just something funny about watching a horror trope unfold, and then have vaguely Swedish sounding furniture names dropped mid sentence. It's overall more amusing than scary, and has some fun ways of making fun of corporate speech and attitudes. There were some cool features like images that I thought added a lot, though it's hard to describe why without spoilers. This book really is mostly worth reading if you really wanna read "the ikea horror book". That's about it.

Content Warnings

Double Booked by Lily Lindon

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

For once, I think the book truly just wasn't for me. Not a soft way of saying I thought it was bad, I couldn't find fault with it, and still didn't get that much out of it. I think it really just wasn't my style, so I'm gonna leave the elaborate reviews to people who felt more strongly about it.

Content Warnings

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

This book is like listening to a motivational speaker talk about a really complicated, difficult and individual problem. I get the point, but whoever is speaking to me, just does not get it. The difference between this book and real lifed experiences is like the difference between an English textbook and the way people really speak.
It also particularly pissed me off, excuse the language, how alternative styles were weirdly stereotyped. Everytime a character did anything with a bit of subculture attached, it was sooooo alienating to the main character, who only ever gets to have "correct" emotions. As soon as someone's dying their hair, they are portrayed as if they are delinquents. I'm not kidding it happens twice.
There were some fun threads coming together at the end and some good foreshadowing that were totally lost when the whole thing was interrupted by a really fucking heavy topic being dropped in for one scene then never talked about again. I might have been willing to give this a 2* or so if that hadn't happened, but that was honestly just not the way to talk about that topic. Felt like pure shock value.
If you are going through shit like this, bullying, social anxiety, etc, I really sympathise with you. But don't go into this book expecting your feelings to be understood the way it promises.

Content Warnings